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September 11, 2006
You tell 'em
As a future lawyer, I am sometimes baffled at the pronouncements of attorneys who are defending a client with a, shall we say, untenable position. Every person is entitled to a fair and adequate defense, and I have no quibble with that. I wrote last year about a Little League coach who allegedly paid one of his players $25 to injure an autistic teammate. He's off to trial, and he has a lawyer who is charged with defending a guy so unpopular he needed a change of venue because he can't get a fair trial in his home town.
The prosecution's case goes like so:
Prosecutors have argued that Downs did not want Harry Bowers Jr., then 9, to play in a June 2005 T-ball playoff game because the boy wasn't as good as his teammates. Bowers has autism and mild mental retardation.
Keith Reese, 8 at the time, testified at a preliminary hearing that he hit Bowers with baseballs first in the groin and later in the ear. Reese said he did it because Downs offered him $25 to make sure Bowers wouldn't be able to play.
League rules require each player to play at least three innings.
Prosecutors did not return several phone calls from The Associated Press seeking comment on the start of the trial.
His lawyer, on the other hand, will talk to the media. He has another theory of the case:
[Defense attorney] Shaffer said Downs had joked at another game about paying players to hit an umpire with a ball. His words were later taken out of context and used against him by Reese, Shaffer said.
Bowers was hit because he misplayed balls while warming up with Reese, Shaffer said.
"[Bowers] was terrible. ... It's not like he got blinded-sided," Shaffer said. "He put his glove up, he missed it and it went off his glove and hit him."
I guess this all depends on how the 8-year old holds up under cross-examination, eh?
Posted by oz115 at September 11, 2006 06:59 PM